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Actually, this goes against the Torygraph’s normal rant. The President of the Police Association is arguing that violent crime is OVER-recorded. the article is a preview of his speech to the Association. Covers other issues such as elected chiefs.

How many more of these to come? Private Eye has printed articles regularly about a boys shome in Northern Ireland. The Belgians were caught. Politicians covering up for fellow paedophiles in several countries. yet many commentators dont think of paedophilia as organised crime

If youve been following this blog for a while, you will remember that all was quiet until the US began building a fence [still unfinished] and changing patterns of behaviour. Policy against organised crime has to involve profiling the consequences of changing existing arrangements and has to budget for policies to deal with those consequences. I dont argue that nothing should be done. I argue that doing stuff should be properly thought through. Bush’s drug tsar stirred the pot and scarpered leaving the mess for the next administration to deal with.

has an ounce less cocaine hit the streets of the US? An ounce less marijuana? Has more hit the streets of Europe? Bears? Woods? Popes? Catholics?

“We have delegated to drug lords the job of managing our immigrant supply, just as they manage our supply of narcotics. The results are clear.”

We arent quite so bad in Europe, but we need to learn from the mistakes being made on the US-Mexico border. We’ve only delegated our immigrant supply policy to organised crime as a whole…Do we have more civilised cartels? I doubt it.

This is a regular story that reflects some truth in that radicalisation is probably being attempted within UK prisons. Note that the Ministry of Justice does not agree and has a special unit in place to counter the process. Bit alarmist for RUSI?

Very brief story with the bare facts. Lorry stopped near Drogheda, possibly on the way to Northern Ireland. Cigarettes allegedly from UAE. Garda estimates gangs making 3 million euros a week from cigarette sales. It has long been anecdotal that more money is made from smuggling cigarettes in European countries than smuggling drugs. Time for some proper research. [see Klaus von Lampe’s work and website http://www.organized-crime.de/ ]

The issue: does rooting out corruption destabilise the Karzai Government? Whoever is arguing this in the Obama Administration needs to be forced to watch a presentation on the degree to which CORRUPTION destabilises that same government. Both processes hurt the government, but not getting to grips with corruption loses popular support daily. Afghans still see the Taliban as scary but clean.

This New York Times article seems to be saying that investigation into the banking system has revealed the degree to which corruption is endemic. New Ansari has been moving money out of Afghanistan into Dubai for loads of people. Between a billion and 2 and a half billion dollars or 25% of GDP.

So, which destabilises Afghanistan more? Attacking corruption or ignoring it? Send your essays to the guy in the White House.